Caen 5 January 2009

A textile machine from the Costumes exhibit at the Musee de Normandy

Caen has one of the main museums documenting the history of the war (Memorial - Un Musee pour la Paix) and we were one day too late to visit. It closed for January the day before we arrived which was very disappointing. After being at D-Day beaches we were very interested to see the Memorial museum. But we hopefully may get a chance to go there later in the year when we return to Paris.

We went into the Chateau de Caen and walked around the Jardin des Simples which was a small garden of medicinal and aromatic herbs. Inside the Chateau was the Musee de Normandy which showed archaeological finds from the Normandy area and information about the settlement and development of life in Normandy.

On the way in to Caen we had kind of a strange experience where we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up on the peripherique road which took us away from Caen in the opposite direction. The signs kept showing ‘Port de Bretagne’ again and again. Finally we got to our Etap hotel and it turned out to be the wrong Etap. So off we go again eventually finding the right hotel which just happened to be in the Port de Bretagne region all along.

Bayeux and The Tapestry 4 January 2009

Bayeux Tapestry (all 70m of it)


Interesting water feature

Olden day house in Bayeux

Irene and I went to view the famous Bayeux Tapestry which is almost 1000 years old. It's a spectacular wool embroidered linen, an impressive sight at 70 m long curving round a long glass case in a darkened room. It's like a gigantic medieval comic strip telling the story of William, Duke of Normandy who set off to conquer England in 1066.

4 January 2009

Tank outside war museum in Bayeux
British War Cemetery

In the morning we returned to Bayeux to visit a British War Cemetery with 4868 graves of Commonwealth soldiers including 17 Australian soldiers who are buried here also. Almost 100 000 soldiers (40 000 allies 60 000 german) soldiers were killed in Normandy and there are 27 military cemeteries in Normandy. It’s a sombre experience walking along and reading the epitaphs of the men who fought and died in the war and then standing on the desolate beaches trying to picture the conditions at the time and what it must have been like for the soldiers in the war arriving on the beach and the freezing cold and rain and the misery of war. Today the area where we stood is just empty and eerily quiet.

Bayeux 3 January 2009

The beach at Longues-sur-Mer


German artillery in the concrete bunkers

We left St Malo for Bayeux which was 150 km away. The trip seemed slow and ended up taking quite a long time. No particular reason. We made chilly stops at two of the D-Day Landing beaches at Bayeux – Longues-Sur-Mer and Arromanches.

Along the grassy edges not far up the beach at Longues-sur-Mer were these massive concrete bunkers with German guns still in them.

At Arromanches (named Port Winston after Winston Churchill) the allies made prefabricated marinas of concrete blocks which they sunk to form a semi-circular breakwater in which floating bridge spans were moored. The remains can still be seen a few hundred metres out to sea.

The artificial port, codenamed Mulberry was the most important port during the Battle for Caen as it enabled supplies to get through to the troops fighting in the Battle of Normandy.

Saint Malo 3 January 2009

Ice on the car

The kids couldn't resist these photos.

Andrew had to lift Ella up for this one, her head couldn't quite fit through.

We’re off to a late start again. It doesn’t get light until about 8.30-8.45 am in the morning so it’s really hard to get going while it still feels like the middle of the night.

We had frozen ice on the windscreen this morning. It was -1°C again. We had to scrape the ice off the windows before we could leave. We had a walk around the old city of St Malo. We had a lovely morning tea/early lunch at a gorgeous little warm creperie called Le Biniou (meaning bagpipes. There was meant to be bagpipe pictures somewhere in the cafe but I couldn't see any.) I had the most scrumptious apple and chantilly crepe and hot chocolate – yummo!

Mont St-Michel 3 January 2009

We left for St Malo via Rennes after lunch. It was still -1°C and the sky was grey/white with lots of fog. So not much scenery to look at on the way. Thank goodness for Santa and the DS’s which made the long car drives more bearable for the kids (and us).

We arrived at Mont St Michel at 4 in the afternoon. There was so many people queuing we didn’t get in till 4.30 which was too late to join in the English speaking tour (which we later found out started at 2.30 pm anyway). I was amazed by the hundreds of visitors. I just didn’t anticipate there being so many other people there. In summer the crowds are meant to be phenomenal so I can’t imagine how crowded that would be. Still it was definitely a must see.

The Abbey at Mont St Michel sits on top of a small island surrounded by ramparts and connected to the town by an old causeway. We arrived at low tide and there are signs and staff to show you where to park when there is a high tide due.

I would have liked to have been there to see the tide come in because apparently it comes in really quickly and the whole area surrounding the Mont is completely submerged within a few hours.

We left on dusk which was about 5.30 pm for the drive to the hotel in St Malo for the night (about 40 km away). My dusk photos of Mont St Michel are so dusky that I’m not sure they're worth including.

Bonnes Année et Meilleurs Voeux pour 2009!

Still in Nantes. This morning we went to the Jules Verne Musee which the kids seemed to enjoy maybe because of the imaginative way that he wrote and planned his stories and the interesting drawings and sketches which were displayed. I asked Ella what she liked about the Jules Verne museum and she said “I was impressed that they stayed in the balloon for five weeks.”

After the museum Andrew took the kids to the Naturelle Histoire Museum and Irene and I made a second attempt to visit the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. The Museum inside the Chateau was sectioned off into 7 different themes about the history of the city. We could have spent more time there because there was a lot to see and a lot of reading. One part I found particularly interesting was about the slave trade. The French ships would head off to the African coast and Caribbean islands and be loaded up with various products that they would exchange for slaves. It was quite gruesome and inhumane how the people were treated crammed into the boats in chains.

This morning when we got in the car it was - 1°C and the temperature stayed there all day. It was so cold. Anyway it was nice to spend time in a warm museum.

New Year's Day 1 January 2009

Everyone slept in today. We didn’t leave till 10am. Andrew had promised to take the kids ice skating. So they headed off to the makeshift rink next to the Chateau while Irene and I did a little walking tour around the old city looking for the main points on the tourist map. Later we met up with Andrew and the kids and had hot chocolates and crepes from a street stall and wandered over to the Jardin des Plantes which is a most beautifully designed botanical garden. There was a small playground/sandpit for the kids to play in which kept them amused for ages.

Slim pickings for dinner this night. There didn't seem to be many places open. We ended up at Buffalo Grill, very ordinary! The Etap Hotels are good value for a bed for the night but they are definitely no frills so happy days when we found a coffee vending machine in the foyer.

La Rochelle and Nantes 31 December 2008

This morning we called in to La Rochelle which is a pretty coastal town. We walked around the town inspected the ramparts and eglise, took a few photos, bought Ella some gloves because she’d lost one glove and then kept driving on to Nantes. It was freezing cold.

Nantes is the birthplace of Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Round the World in 80 Days etc). We attempted to visit the Duc de Bretagne Chateau as soon as we arrived but it was closing early. All the staff looked like they were ready to hit the town for New Year’s Eve. We walked around the outside of the chateau but it was so cold I really couldn’t wait to get back into the warm car. A lot of museums close earlier in winter and many have the month of January off .

We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve in our Etap watching French tv till midnight and then went to sleep.

Bordeaux 30 December 2008

Eglise
Ella in front of an ornate fountain

Interesting art!

Kids waiting outside hotel.

We walked for miles around Bordeaux. Over half of Bordeaux is world Heritage listed because of its architectural heritage and its buildings are so beautifully preserved.

There was evidence of some interesting art projects at a few of the monuments we visited.

Late in the afternoon Andrew took the kids back to the hotel for a rest and I ventured out to the Musee d’Aquitaine for an hour or so on my own. There was no information in English on any of the exhibits which always irks me.